Family From Hell
by Sly Sparrow
Summary: Skulduggery and Valkyrie are on another case, checking out an old house when they come across a certain something or someone. Skulduggery is put in a situation which forces him to ask help from the family he never wanted to see again the family from hell. Set a after DOTL, contains spoilers. T to be safe.
1. The Beast

"Skulduggery, Valkyrie, I have a new case for you," China said as the two of them walked into her office. "But I really wanted to go to the beach today, it's really nice weather outside, can't you get someone else to do it?" Valkyrie protested "Valkyrie, shut up." Skulduggery told her as she crossed her arms with a humph. "I am well aware of the weather conditions but you have a responsibility Valkyrie, like it or not. There have been reports of something snatching mortals and dragging them to this abandoned house," China explained as she put some photos down on her desk, "I want you two to go and check it out, see what is abducting the mortals and get rid of it. Do you understand?" "You speak to us as though we are children, of course we understand." Skulduggery said.

"The house looks creepy," Valkyrie said as they rocked up. "It is abandoned, or did you forget that bit?" "No I didn't forget I was just saying that it look freaky." "Actually you said it look creepy not freaky." Skulduggery added and strode off toward the house. "Is there a difference," Valkyrie muttered before racing after her partner.

Upon entering the house it looked like something out of a horror movie. Perfect hideout for a beast thought Skulduggery. Just then the duo heard a noise coming from upstairs so they carefully and quietly drifted upstairs only to come face to face with a hideous monster. It's piercing black eyes staring right through Valkyrie's soul, with its big grinning mouth full of lots of large sharp yellow teeth and its thick black fur, as sharp and stiff as daggers, standing all on end. Then he turned his gaze to Skulduggery and the grin turned to a snarl and Skulduggery knew exactly who it was. "Well, hello again." He said with a humourless laugh.

**A/N: Ok so this was a pretty bad and short chapter but they will get better and longer. Anyways please leave some reviews so I can improve the story and as an added bonus I will even add your character just tell me all about them and they will have a spot in the story. And if you have an idea I would be more than happy to hear all about it, and I will probably put that in the story as well, so fell free to criticise and give ideas/characters (in a way they are the same thing). I will update the story as often as possible even if only one person reads this...but I may need to be reminded from time to time. BTW not all A/N's will be as long as this one, most of the time I won't put any in but if I do it will be important.**


	2. Lucifer

"You know I have wanted to catch up, wait no that's a lie, honestly I never wanted to see your face again, unless I'm putting a bullet in your head, especially after certain past events…and can you stop growling at me for ten minutes so that we can have a decent conversation or is that just too hard for you? Oh don't look at me as though I just hurt your feelings, we both know you don't have any," Skulduggery said then with a deep sigh continued what he was saying, "I've never liked you, I liked your brother and your sisters but never you. I looked at you and I would feel sick with the knowledge of what you are-" _My sister is the same as me_ the beast told Skulduggery telepathically. "Don't interrupt me, and you're wrong, none of your siblings are like you, they don't take innocent lives-"

_Everyone has their time_

"Yes, so you keep saying. Is that how you sleep at night? Do you hear the cries of the mother who lost her family in the fire that your little pets started? Your bloody sister does. And do you know whose cries she also had to put up with for years? Your boy's. Do you remember him? The one you left on the street because he reminded you of your mother."

_You don't know what you are talking about skeleton. I don't have to justify my actions to you, what I did I did for a reason, that woman you spoke of should be grateful she didn't die in that fire, she should realise that if her family didn't die their soul would have eaten at them, tortured them and destroyed them. You only skimmed through the story, only paying attention when it suited you. Now I don't exactly like you either but what you fail to realise is that us two, we are not that different._

"No, we are completely different. We are different in every way possible."

_You keep telling yourself that._ The beast said with a crooked grin.

"You have sunk so low, I mean you have always been low, but this. You take the form of this hideous creature, abduct innocent people and, now don't growl or anything like that at me if I get this wrong, I am just judging you on who you are and your history, and you kill them. Is that what you do now? Because all of those names, that's what they to you aren't they, just names, names in a book with a date next to them, well at least most of them are. Where all of those people, all of those lives, where they in your book? Did your book say that every single person you took in the past month need to die?"

"What book? Skulduggery what are you talking about?"

Skulduggery sighed "Valkyrie do you remember the book of names?"

"Yeah"

"Well there are also two other books, the book of life, that has a record of when everyone is born, and the other book is the book of death, it has a record of when everyone dies."

"Charming, I guess this fella has the book of death."

"Yep."

"Oh, ok. So what are you going to do about him?"

"Not much we can do Valkyrie, trust me when I say this but you don't want to get on this guy's bad side."

"Yeah I kinda got the feeling that you know him and don't like him, but China said we had to get rid of him."

As soon as Valkyrie stopped talking the beast transformed into a man, he wore a black hoody with black tracksuit pants, his hair was jet black and down to his shoulders and he had a huge scar going from the top of his right eyebrow all the way down to under the left corner of his mouth, but the thing Valkyrie could not draw her gaze from was his eyes, they were the same piercing black when he was the beast, but they had a certain look about them, the way he looked at her made her want to curl up a die. Then he looked at Skulduggery with a look that can only described as pure hatred.

Finally Valkyrie found her voice, "How did you get that scar?"

"A dragon, she didn't exactly like me," the man said with an Australian accent

"We saw a dragon once, it lives under my uncles house," Valkyrie said with excitement and pride

"They are extinct now Valkyrie, died out a long time ago,"

"They are still alive, I saw one and ... how do you know my name?"

"I just do, are you not going to ask my name? After all you don't know it."

"Do I need to know it?"

Before the man could reply Skulduggery asked, "Why are you on the surface, let alone in Ireland Lucifer?"

"I really don't think it's any of your business, Pleasant. You know for someone with the name Pleasant you aren't very pleasant."

"I really don't like you"

"Ok so if you two don't mind but I don't really like this house so could we maybe get the hell out of here?" Valkyrie asked

"What, don't you like my home?" Lucifer asked

"No sorry, it gives me the creeps."

"Fine let's go."

"Who said you're coming with us?" Skulduggery said

"I'll make you a deal Skulduggery, I'll burn this house down, no more people from the town will be killed, you go to your grand mage and tell her that you killed the beast and I will go back home."

"What's in it for you Lucifer?"

"Absolutely nothing, call it a act of good faith if you will."

"You don't do acts of good faith."

"Take it or leave it skeleton, you have nothing to lose."

"So you will just go back to hell where you belong, ok then deal."

And with that he disappeared with a puff of black smoke. When they got back to the Bentley Valkyrie asked Skulduggery "So how do you know that guy?" Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie and told her "He's my brother-in-law," and got into the car.

**A/N: Ok so this is roughly how long I am planning to write each chapter, tell me if you think it's too long or short. :)**


	3. Who Is He?

Outside it was pouring down rain, after about a week the good weather had gone and was replaced by cold wet miserable days, and Valkyrie never got to go to the beach.

Valkyrie was sitting in one of Skulduggery's armchairs reading a book when he walked into the room, when she didn't look up he knew something was wrong. "What's wrong Valkyrie?" he asked

"Nothing," she said turning the page.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not!" she practically shouted throwing down her book.

Skulduggery tilted his head and looked at her in a way that only a skeleton could pull off. "Now I shall repeat my question, what's wrong?"

"It's not fair, we get a week, a whole week of beautiful weather and China kept us so busy. I couldn't go to the beach, it's not fair. And I just recently found out you have a brother-in-law and you tell me absolutely nothing about him, I mean surly he can't be that bad, I mean his eyes are a bit creepzilla but nobody's perfect," when Valkyrie saw Skulduggery slowly shaking his head at her she paused then said "Why don't you tell me about him?"

"What's to tell?" he stated with absolute bitterness.

"Please Skulduggery."

With a sigh Skulduggery reluctantly started to tell Valkyrie all about Lucifer, "Lucifer is, was, my wife's twin brother, they had a good relationship, they were close, they even had a telepathic link, they knew all of each other's secrets. They were also complete opposites, where he preferred death and destruction, she preferred life. When their mother died something happened to them, my wife became withdrawn and spent hours on end locked in her room, Lucifer started killing anything that got in his way, the other two, Jack and Heidi, they kept their distance, they even hated my wife for a while, just because she never cried for their mother's death. Their mother never liked Lucifer, she always said he had a great evil in him, and she was right. Their mother was very powerful, she had many enemies, and one of them was Lilith. Lilith's and Lucifer's hatred of his mother was what brought them together and they ended up marrying each other, kinda sick if you think about it, marrying someone because you both hate the same person. But in a way they are made for each other, they are both sick twisted people that love death. About 800 years ago they had a son, but because he had his grandmother's eyes they kicked him out onto the street and my wife took pity on him and raised him on her own. But there is something very important that you must understand Valkyrie. Lucifer is not fully human."

"What do you mean?"

"His mother was a dragon, the most powerful dragon of them all. She had a rare gift that only the luckiest dragons have the ability to shape-shift. That's how she was able to easily deceive Lucifer's father, but that wouldn't be a very hard thing to do."

"Why do you say that?"

"He was a caveman from the stone age. Lucifer is very old Valkyrie. He was even one of the Ancients many years ago, in fact all four of them where."

"Right, so why does he have the book of death?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" he asked her with surprise in his voice. When she shook her head he told her, "He's the devil Valkyrie, he rules over the underworld, on the date of your death he sends out a grim reaper that is in your area to reap you then bring you down to hell so he can assess you and lead you to the right part of hell. Think of him as the king of death and Lilith as the queen of death."

"OK, so who has the book of life?"

"My wife had the book until she died, then it was given to Lucifer for safe keeping."

As soon as Skulduggery stopped talking his phone rang. He answered it, "Hello?" "Hi Skulduggery its China, I need you and Valkyrie to come to the sanctuary ASAP." And without waiting for a response China ended the call.

"That was China," Skulduggery explained, "she wants us at the sanctuary, for something important

I think."

"When?"

"Now"

"Well we better be off then, wouldn't want to waste her majesty's time."

"What do you want China?" Valkyrie asked as they strode into her office. "There have been reports of this thing killing sorcerers, mortals and even the occasional animal. I thought you told me you killed the beast?"

"We did kill it" Skulduggery told her

"Then how come we have had all these reports and these surveillance photos?" she asked as she through a bunch of photographs onto her desk. Valkyrie walked over and took a look at them, "this is not the beast we killed China, this is something completely different." Skulduggery looked at the photos, they were of a woman, no not a woman Skulduggery thought then took a closer look. She had long fiery red hair down to her waist, Violet triangular eyes, jet black shiny scales where her skin is meant to be and large leathery wings spurting out of her back with sharp white teeth sitting gently on her black lips but the thing that stood out the most to Skulduggery was the scar on her right arm, three lines, all next to each other, in every photo she was standing in a position that suggested she was getting ready to fight. After staring at the photographs after what seemed like hours Skulduggery finally said something so quiet that if China and Valkyrie wasn't expecting him to say something they would have missed it, "impossible" Skulduggery whispered.

**A/N: Ok so I had a bit of trouble with this chapter but with a little chat with my friend Jedi-TARDIS-Chick I got a cool idea, thanks for your help. Again if you have any ideas please tell me and I will put them in.**


	4. Impossible

"What's impossible?" China asked. When Skulduggery didn't answer she asked him again with more force in her voice, "Detective Pleasant what is impossible?"

Skulduggery looked up, "Hmmm?"

"When you looked at the picture you said impossible, why?" Valkyrie said while China looked at him suspiciously. Skulduggery simply dismissed them both with a wave of his hand, "Doesn't matter," he said "but what does is the fact that she will continue killing unless we stop her," he told them

"Then stop her, get rid of her or even make her disappear, I don't care just as long as she stops killing everything, I want her gone at whatever the cost, got it?" China said.

"Yes boss," Valkyrie replied with a very monotone voice and Skulduggery nodded, with that the duo wandered off back to the Bentley.

When they got to the car Skulduggery was talking to himself "She's dead, this isn't right, and it wasn't like her to just kill off random people, there must be a good reason, something must be wrong, how is she alive, this is not normal, this is bad, really really bad, she's too powerful, she could kill us without lifting a finger, we are going to need help, someone who can match her power and who knows her better than me, but there is no one, unless…"

"Are you seriously talking to yourself again?" Valkyrie asked him.

Skulduggery looked at her as he went around the car to his side "Yes, sometimes I need expert advice."

"You are so full of yourself," she said when they were both in the car.

After what seemed like hours of driving Valkyrie was really bored and finally asked "where are we going?" when Skulduggery didn't answer she asked again "Skulduggery, where are we going and when are we going to get there?" but Skulduggery just continued driving, his eyes fixated on the road, but his mind was elsewhere. _Where is it, it was around her somewhere, or was it further up, I can't remember anymore,_ he silently chuckled a humourless chuckle, _and there I was thinking I would never have to go back to that terrible place, oh how I was wrong. What am I thinking! He will never help us, why will he want to help us, stupid, stupid, how could I be so stupid. Oh I need to turn here._ Skulduggery made a sharp turn onto a small dirt road, slamming Valkyrie into the door "Jesus Christ Skulduggery, why don't you be careful for a change, I want to go home alive you know!" Valkyrie shouted at him, just as they came to a stop. "We have to walk from here," Skulduggery told her as he got out the car. With a groan of displeasure she got out of the car and looked around as far as the eye could see was just paddock after paddock after paddock, "Seriously Skulduggery, all I can see is grass, grass and more grass, where are we going?" she asked. But all Skulduggery did for an answer was point towards the setting sun and started walking off in that direction. Valkyrie looked over toward where Skulduggery was walking and saw a tiny silhouette of a small shack and she ran off toward Skulduggery.

After about two hours of walking the sun went down so now they were walking in pitch black. But it didn't look that far we must have been walking for at least three hours now surly we must get there soon, I wonder why Skulduggery hasn't been talking much. Valkyrie thought then asked "Where are we going?"

Skulduggery looked at her and simply stated "to get help."

"Well did we have to travel for a whole day just to get help?"

"We haven't been traveling a whole day Valkyrie and yes we did need to go this far that shack over there is the closest entrance point."

"Closest entrance point to what?"

"You'll see."

When they finally got to the shack it took all the energy Valkyrie had just not to collapse then and there. She was sore and extremely exhausted and when she looked over towards Skulduggery and she was angry that he seemed unfazed by the great distance they had just walked. She looked over at the shack; it was made of wood and was falling apart, it looked dark and gloomy and had a creepy vibe about it. "Who would live in a place like this? Are you sure we are in the right place?"

"Yes I'm sure, I know what I'm doing Valkyrie" Skulduggery told her and walked into the old shack. With a heavy sigh Valkyrie reluctantly followed Skulduggery inside.

As soon Valkyrie walked in her blood ran deadly cold, the kind of cold that lets you know that something's not right. The inside of the shack was worse than the outside, it was dark and spooky, there was no light, the floor boards creaked when they were stood on and the place smelt damp and full of old mould. Skulduggery reached out for something that Valkyrie couldn't see and the next thing she knew she was free falling

down…

down…

down…

Until she hit the ground hard with a thud, Skulduggery landed softly, looked at her and said "Sorry I forgot that you aren't an elemental anymore."

"Thank you Skulduggery for that wonderful piece of sympathy, once again would it kill you to let me know this stuff before or better yet a little warning before you send us hurtling down at a thousand kilometres per hour!" Valkyrie snapped. She look up and around, they were in the middle of a dark and spooky forest in the middle of the night with only the full moon to light the way and Valkyrie's blood ran even colder, she didn't even think that was possible. "Where are we?" Valkyrie asked with a hint of fear in her voice. Then from behind them came a woman's voice. "What are you doing here, I thought I made it quite clear I didn't want to see you around here ever again, go home you are not welcome here." She spat as Skulduggery and Valkyrie turned around.


	5. The Underworld

"Hello, Lilith," Skulduggery said slightly pissed off with the fact that she spat at him, "how are you on this lovely evening?"

"What are you doing here, Skulduggery? We have done nothing wrong."

"That depends on your point of view"

"Would someone please tell me what is going on! I'm tired and cold and in a really bad mood, so someone tell me what is going on or God help me I will punch somebody." Valkyrie yelled at the other two.

Lilith looked at Valkyrie for what seemed like a long time and Skulduggery saw so thing flicker across her face that he just couldn't quite recognise. Eventually Lilith looked away and told the other two to follow her and she turned on her heel and started walking in a daze.

Skulduggery soon fell in step behind her with Valkyrie by his side. They walked in silence for a while but it wasn't long before Valkyrie started to ask questions.

"Where are we?"

"The Underworld." Lilith told her bluntly

"The what!" Valkyrie practically shouted

"The Underworld, Hell, City of the Dead, Heaven, whatever you want to call it."

"Skulduggery, why did you take us to The Underworld?"

"I told you, we need help."

"We're not going to help you, you do know that right?"

"I beg to differ Lillie, once Lucifer has heard what I have to say, he will most definitely help."

"Wait, wait a moment. Are you saying that now that we got rid of your Brother-In-Law we are going to ask him for help!? Why are we doing that?"

"Because we need to Val. Because we need to."

They soon came to a clearing in the forest at the end of the clearing was a tall man in a robe with a hood covering his face, behind him floating off the side of a cliff was a what looked something like a gondola. As they got closer Valkyrie noticed that his face was half decomposed but surprisingly he didn't smell like a decomposing person, in fact he smelt quite nice.

"Charon take us to my husband." Lilith ordered the boatman as she got into the boat and gestured to the others to join her. Once they were all in the boat Charon started steering them through the air to wherever their destination is.

After a couple of minutes sitting in silence Valkyrie tried to make conversation. "So...is this where you live, Lilith?"

"Yes I live right over there." She said pointing to an enormous castle.

The castle had an eerie red glow emitting from the door and windows and looked something like an old church that was falling apart. It sat upon a large hill making it the easiest thing to see in the underworld, for it stood above everything else. A few dead trees surrounded the castle upon the hill.

The boat veered towards the castle and for the first time since being on the way to the underworld Skulduggery felt nervous. He couldn't help the feeling that Lucifer might not help them and it was getting to him. Skulduggery knew that their only hope was resting in a hybrid man dragon that will more than likely not help them and every living organism would die. But that wasn't what bothered Skulduggery the most. Skulduggery couldn't stop thinking about the red-haired woman. She was dead. I saw her die. This is impossible. The abrupt stop of the boat disturbed Skulduggery from his thoughts. "Why have we stopped?" He asked.

"We're here." Lilith said matter of factly

They were at the entrance of the castle. It looked even more terrifying up close and Valkyrie felt so insignificant compared to this building Lilith calls her home. Being near the entrance of the castle she could see it in more detail. By the side of the house there was a small cemetery. Huh the irony, graves in the underworld...I do hope nothing crawls out of them, she thought. Valkyrie though she felt the castle calling to her. Telling her to come inside. She felt warmer standing here than she did on the boat orin the forest, if Valkyrie hadn't seen a bit of the house fall on the ground she would have walked in right then and there. All of a sudden the castle didn't seem very welcoming, as though if she stepped in the house would devour her and she would never be able to go home. Maybe I won't tell Mum, Dad and Alice about this one. If Skulduggery hadn't nudged Valkyrie into the house she would have stayed oozed where she was.

The three of them walked inside the castle. Upon entry they walked into a large throne room. Upon one of the thrones sat Lucifer reading a book. Lilith walked up to him and sat in the throne next to him. Once Lilith was seated comfortably Lucifer up his book down and looked at Skulduggery and Valkyrie.

"Well you two took your time, I started to think you weren't going to show up." Lucifer said to them with a wicked grin.


	6. An Unpleasant Conversation

p class="p1"span class="s1"Valkyrie raised an eyebrow and eyed him with suspicion. "How'd you know we were coming?" Lucifer dropped his grin and looked at Valkyrie with a steady cold glare and almost snarled at her question. "It was kind of obvious that you would show up. After she escaped the connection I grew weaker. Every now and then I get a glimpse of what she is about to do but unfortunately I can't stop her from killing."/span/p  
>p class="p2"Once Lucifer had stopped talking Lilith's eyes grow wide and her jaw dropped, "Is that why we have had more deaths recently? Because you let a soul escape!" she screamed at her husband. p  
>p class="p2"While Skulduggery was enjoying watching the scene unravel in front of him, he had it in his best interests to get out of this city of the dead as soon as possible. He needed this case to end before it tore him apart. "I would hate to interrupt, but we did come here for a reason. You let a soul escape Lucifer and we need your help to bring her back here before we are all at her mercy."p  
>p class="p2"Lucifer let out a small chuckle and observed Skulduggery with curious eyes, as though it was the first time he was meeting the skeleton but is was what he said that had Valkyrie stumped. "You recognised her didn't you, Skulduggery. Tell me did it tear you apart to see her killing like that? To see her in her natural state, ripping people apart limb by limb? Her primal instincts kicking in, returning to the state she was in before she killed her mother?"p  
>p class="p2""SHUT UP!" Skulduggery shouted at the man taunting him, if had blood it would surly be boiling. Skulduggery took a moment to calm down before he stated talking again, "We did not come here to quarrel, we simply want to stop this lost soul from killing everything on this planet. Are you going to help us or not? From what I have gathered she got out because of you, the least you can do is take responsibility for your actions."p  
>p class="p2"Lucifer let out a loud laugh. emGee for someone who is incapable of emotions he seems rather joyous emSkulduggery thought. "Oh Mr. Pleasant you have got it all wrong. This rouge soul was no accident, it was simply just a way to get your attention. I mean seriously, did you really think it was a coincidence that out of all the souls 'living' here it was emher /emthat got out? Come on Skulduggery, I thought you were better than that. I wanted to give you the hope that the one person who gave you everything, friends, a save place where you and your family could live without being shamed, she even gave you a horse. She turned your life around for the better when your family ran to the safety of her town back in 1620, I wanted to give you the hope that she could return from the dead, I wanted to give you the hope that you could maybe fix your past mistakes that caused her death. Your mistakes that lead her sons to be orphans. They had already lost their father years before, but it was you who left them without a mother." Lucifer stopped talking with a massive grin plastered on his face./p  
>p class="p2""So I take it you are not going to help us then. Well it's not that I don't love our little chats it's just… I don't like them, so if you don't mind we will be going. C'mon Valkyrie this was a waste of our time coming here." Skulduggery turned around and headed for the door without waiting for his extremely confused partner.p  
>p class="p2"Once it registered in Valkyrie's head that she and Skulduggery were leaving, Skulduggery was already at the boat waiting for her to catch up. Silently she boarded the boat and waited awkwardly for Skulduggery to break the silence, hoping that he would enlighten her on what had just happened in the throne room. When Valkyrie realised that Skulduggery wasn't going to talk she took this chance to look around her.p  
>p class="p2"As they floated back to the forest Valkyrie noticed that Hell did not look anything like it was commonly described as with fire everywhere and crying souls begging for release. In fact it was quite peaceful, in a creepy sort of way. There was a full moon with only the occasional drifting cloud. The smell of fresh rain hung heavily in the air. Below them there was a few rocky mountains with a slither of a creek weaving through the rocky terrain and in the distance the edge of the dark cold forest could be seen sitting upon the edge of it's cliff. There was an eerie silence smothering everything, as though there was some sort of blanket covering everything, protecting the realm from every sound on the other side. p  
>p class="p2"The boat reached a stop at the clearing of the forest where they first boarded Charon's boat. Valkyrie was the first to get off, shortly followed by Skulduggery. As he hopped off the boat Charon extended his arm and put a hand on Skulduggery's shoulder. For the first time Charon spoke up "You know strictly speaking I should keep you here. You are dead Mr. Pleasant. You belong here with us, in the realm of the dead." Charon had the kind of voice that would make anyone trust or even fall in love with him. Which is really useful when it comes to taking the dead to a better place, otherwise they would end up either roaming earth as a ghost or getting lost in the endless forest for all of eternity.p  
>p class="p2""I have a job to do Charon, it is not my time just yet."p  
>p class="p2""You will be a lot happier here, you could be reunited with your wife and daughter" Upon hearing these words Valkyrie spun wildly around to face the other two half expecting Skulduggery to take up Charon's offer.p 


	7. The Trip Home

"Charon, I appreciate the offer but I have a job to do, before anyone else gets killed," Skulduggery told the decomposing man whilst turning to face Valkyrie so they could go home. After hearing Skulduggery's response Valkyrie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, relieved that Skulduggery wouldn't leave her in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to get to the land of the living from the forest. Skulduggery walked up to Valkyrie, looked at her for a moment and continue to walk into the deep forest. A silent follow me.

Skulduggery continued to walk through the forest, thankful that his father taught him how to basically live in the woods when he was only seven years of age. Every now and then Skulduggery would feel the air around him so he could be sure of two things; that Valkyrie was still following him and to make sure that they would have no unwanted company jump out at them from behind the trees.

After a few minutes of walking in silence Skulduggery's thoughts started to wonder. _Okay so Lucifer is definitely not going to help us, Lilith might if she is in an alright mood but the chances of that are extremely thin. What am I going to do? She's killing everything she can right now, this is not her normal behaviour. What am I going to do? As much as I hate to admit it Lucifer was right, she has done this before, but that was only a couple of deaths, nothing this big. What am I going to do? What if she cant control herself just like last time? What am I going to do? Could Lucifer be making her do this again? What am I going to do?__If this is like last time she could go into hiding again once she realises what she__'__s done. What am I going to do? If she goes into hiding we will never be able to find her and she could easily start killing again. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?_

"Skulduggery, stop. I can hear the incoherent wine of your IQ. What on Earth or even Hell is going through that head of yours?" Valkyrie stopped walking and glared daggers at Skulduggery's back. Skulduggery stopped and turned his head to the side in a sort of half effort to face his partner. "We are nearly at the exit point we just need to walk a little further."

"No, Skulduggery you are going to tell me what the hell just happened back there. I am your partner, my _life _is in your hands on a regular daily basis I think I have a right to know what is going on. You obviously know something about this case that I don't. Hell, the only things that I do now about this case is that this thing that is killing everyone is an escaped dead thing, you recognised the creature, apparently you even used to be friends with it, Lucifer is supposedly responsible for all of this mess and oh lets not forget the fact that this has all happened before!"

After her little rant Valkyrie was bursting at the seams with anger. She was fed up with Skulduggery's secrecy. After all the years that the two had been working together Valkyrie had thought that she could be trusted with his secrets. She had kept his secret about him being Lord Vile hadn't she? So what could be so bad about this case that Skulduggery wont even talk to her.

Skulduggery sighed, he knew that he would have to tell Valkyrie what was going on but now was not the right time or place to tell her. So instead of telling Valkyrie anything Skulduggery started walking again.

They walked for another ten minutes before finally coming to a stop in a small clearing. Skulduggery put his hand on Valkyrie's shoulder and whispered something under his breath that just sounded like a bunch of gurgling noises from the back of the throat. Then a swarm of shadows surrounded them so they could no longer see the forest that had surrounded them. Once the shadows cleared they were standing in the middle of the old ramshackled hut. As soon as they got their wits about them they started the long journey back to the Bentley.

* * *

><p>When they got back to Haggard Skulduggery dropped Valkyrie off at the pier and wished her goodnight before driving off into the night. As she walked home Valkyrie kept on wondering about the strange conversation between Skulduggery and Lucifer. Skulduggery was close friends with the mystery woman. Valkyrie knew that much. She also knew that the red-haired woman was responsible for her mother's death and that Skulduggery was responsible for her death. From what Valkyrie also gathered from the horrid conversation was that the scaled woman also had sons. Valkyrie was too engrossed in trying to sort through the information from a few hours before she didn't notice she was being followed.<p>

He watched her from the shadows as she continued walking home. He couldn't help but be amused at what her reaction would be if he disturbed her from her thoughts. Would she scream and run home or would she try to kill him? _More than likely the later _he thought. Once he had heard about the monster killing anything it could get its hands on he knew exactly who it was. In fact all vampires knew who it was, and they were worried. The man stepped out of the shadows to stand in front of Valkyrie, bracing himself for her attack. Valkyrie stopped walking when she saw the man come to a stop in front of her, all thoughts she had about the conversation between Skulduggery and Lucifer evaporating into nothing. She clenched her fists getting ready to attack the horrid freak of nature in front of her.

"Dusk," she said through clenched teeth.


	8. Misguided Information

"I'm not here to fight you Valkyrie."

"Then why are you here?"

"To help, I know about your case. The Leader was always a bit of a loose cannon, but she has gone to far this time. The last time this happened it didn't go this far, she never left any evidence when she hunted. I am worried that we my not be able to bring her back to her normal self, we all are."

"If you help us with this case what's in it for you?"

"It is in my best interest to make sure no harm comes to The Leader. I believe that someone is somehow controlling her."

"What makes you think someone is controlling her?"

Dusk hesitated before he answered Valkyrie, as though he had already said too much. "It's the only explanation that I can think of. Why else would she break her own rules? Rules that have major consequences if we ever break them."

"I'm sorry this doesn't make sense. Just a few hours ago I was told that this, thing, had died years ago. That she was friends with Skulduggery and that he was somehow responsible for her death."

"The Leader never died. Who told you that?"

Valkyrie was slightly shocked at Dusk's response but shock was quickly replaced with curiosity and distrust. Dusk's version of what was going on was the closest thing to answers Valkyrie was going to get, so she decided to make the most of her current situation. "Why do you keep calling her 'The Leader?'"

"Because that is what we know her as. She never told us her taken name, at first it was creator but as time went on vampires figured out how to create others without her help. Once this started happening The Leader would always make sure that new vampires weren't made in mass batches. She put strict rules in place to keep both vampires and humans safe, the punishment varied in severity depending on the rule that was broken."

"And no one ever tried to kill or at least over rule her?"

"Many tried and they all failed. The Leader is very powerful and fierce but she is also gentle and kind when she wants to be." As Dusk said the last bit a fond smile crept across his face and Valkyrie couldn't help but think how out of place the smile looked, as though it was somehow lost.

"Is there any reason somebody would try to control her like this or is she in a powerful and fierce mood?"

Dusk narrowed his eyes at Valkyrie before answering, "I think the fact that she is the most powerful being on this planet is a petty good motive, don't you?"

Valkyrie let out a frustrated sigh, "If this leader of yours is as powerful as you say, how did someone take control over her mind? I'm sorry Dusk but your story isn't very plausible. The last thing I want to do is run around chasing fairy tales. Your story is very interesting but that's all it actually sounds like, a story."

"You think I'm lying, don't you? Ask any vampire and they will tell you exactly the same thing. You are hunting The Leader, she is the very first vampire, she is extremely powerful, she even has her own army and most importantly she created the code we live by. I was trying to help you Cain, the least you can do is not screw your nose up at my information. Goodnight detective." With that Dusk turned around and started walking the other way. Frustrated Valkyrie continued her short walk home.


End file.
